looked again across the waters.

In a few minutes the servant who guarded his privacy was again heard
announcing the lord Decius. The Senator turned his eyes with a look
of good-humoured greeting.

'Abroad so early, good cousin? Did the oil fail you last night and
send you too soon to bed?'

'You have not chanced to remember, dear my lord, what day it is?'
returned Decius, when he had bestowed a kiss on his kinsman's cheek.
'Had I but vigour enough, this morning would have seen me on a
pilgrimage to the tomb.' He put out a hand towards Neapolis. 'I rose
at daybreak to meditate the Fourth Eclogue.'

'The ides of October--true. I take shame to myself for having lost
the memory of Virgil in my own distresses.'

Decius, whose years were scarce thirty, had the aspect and the gait
of an elderly man; his thin hair streaked with grey, his cheeks
hollow, his eyes heavy, he stooped in walking and breathed with
difficulty; the tunic and the light cloak, which were all his
attire, manifested an infinite carelessness in matters of costume,
being worn and soiled. Than he, no Roman was poorer; he owned
nothing but his clothing and a few books. Akin to the greatest, and
bearing a name of which he was inordinately proud--as a schoolboy
he had once burst into tears when reciting with passion the Lay of
the Decii--felt content to owe his sustenance to the delicate and
respectful kindness of Maximus, who sympathised with the great wrong
he had suffered early in life. This was no less than wilful